From Kakadu we put in our first moderate drive, deciding to skip a couple of places we had been thinking about along the way and after a brief shop and check out of the town of Katherine we arrived in the Nitmiluk National Park (Katherine Gorge to the politically incorrect). In comparison to Kakadu it is very much more touristed, being viewed from primarily one point where boat, canoe, walking tours all depart. We've done all 3 in our 2 days here.

The first day our experience gained in navigating Australian tourist bureau's showed as we ended up booked on the wrong trip and not the one we had paid for. Fortunately the wrong one that we took was shorter than the right one as Lily was pretty much at her limit after 2 hours on a slow moving boat

even if in very pretty surrounds. But the girls really came into their own later that day when using our rapidly building bushman experience we headed off for an 8km walk in the middle of the day with the information board predicting maximum temperatures on the trail of 45 degrees. The girls did superbly. But bettered even themselves the

next day when we covered around 12kms of difficult walking to butterfly gorge (blutterfy to Lily) and back. It was hot rocky dusty but barely a complaint did we hear. Apart that is when disputes (on both walks) over the rules of "follow the leader" led Lily to mutter for the next km or so about feeding her mummy, daddy (and most seriously) sister to the crocodiles. And the minute we were back from our adventures, Neil and Maia were back on the waters for an hour's canaydeeing (to use the Lily term). So all in all a very active and enjoyable stay.

We head firmly westward from here and the distances start to get bigger. We've picked up quite a bit of information from fellow travelers about our coming itinerary which is now seeming very manageable, but nevertheless we are certainly going to be moving through much more remote and dramatic countryside as we head for Broome through the Kimberleys.